Monday, August 8, 2016

Remembering Huncke

Twenty years on. It's scarcely imaginable. Herbert Huncke, "Beat Godfather" died on this day. In memoriam, our good friend Laki Vazakas has provided us with this new Huncke footage - Huncke reading three poems in the Chelsea Hotel, New York, February 7, 1994.February 4th 1994 - "Long am I overdue It doesn't matter.."…"A perfection rare of exquisite beauty""Comments vague threats broken noses.."…."reading their brand of sentiment on and on""There are other things I could do.."…."something of the energy flow remains, to encourage"Remembering HunckeHere's an accompanying note from Laki:

But those of
us who were fortunate to know Herbert as a friend also experienced his gentle
wisdom, his wry wit, and his eternal cool.

For someone
who had lost almost a decade of his life to incarceration, Huncke was
remarkably generous with his time, his stories, his candor.

I think of
Herbert quite often, envisioning him sitting at his desk in room 828 of the
Chelsea, looking out the window as the sky morphed from azure to taxi yellow
and finally to his beloved crimson.

I think of
the community of friends who looked after Herbert in his final years.
Jerome Poynton, Raymond Foye, Tim Moran and other folks in the Chelsea did all
they could to care for Huncke as his health began to fail.

I also
recall visiting Herbert in Beth Israel the night before he died. His
breathing had become laborious, but over the lull of morphine, he raised his
voice to share these words: "Tomorrow night, we're gonna have a
pow-wow. Talk among ourselves."

I remember
the way he enunciated and elongated the words pow-wow.

Anyone who
was touched by Huncke's unpretentious, nonchalant charisma understands the
significance of those two syllables. Herbert valued the company of his
friends, the fine art of conversation, the small details and chance connections
that illuminated his midnight stories.

I thought
I'd share this video of Herbert reading three of his poems at the Chelsea in
1994. He was recovering from a broken shoulder, and pneumonia,
after falling on the ice. He reveals his battle scar at the end of the
clip.